Harare – Premier African Minerals Limited has abandoned plans to de-merge its Zimbabwe assets and list them in London but instead will acquire a 50 percent share of assets of KME, its constructor at the RHA tungsten and Zulu lithium projects
Under the original plan, KME’s assets were to be combined with RHA and Zulu to form a new company but that idea has now been abandoned. The ownership structure of RHA has been a sticking point.
Premier has also entered into binding heads of terms to acquire 50 percent of the equity of HBR, the owner of a Zimbabwe-based near-term gold producer with substantial exploration and development upside potential, for $3.7-million, to be settled in shares.
HBR has two projects available for immediate development and within close proximity of each other. The first project is a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant gold resource of 535 000 oz with copper credits at a grade of 2.10 g/t gold and 0.33 percent copper.
The second project is an option over a nearby mining lease which has historically supplied high-grade ore from existing underground shafts to the previous owners’ nearby gold facility.
In a statement on Thursday, CE George Roach said Premier believes there is the potential to target a resource covering these two projects in excess of two-million ounces of gold through additional exploration work and drilling using the KME Plant Hire asset base.
He added that the miner also plans for targeted gold production within nine months of closing the transaction, and also intends to start additional drilling at the Zulu lithium project.
Meanwhile, Premier has been trying to get the Zimbabwe authorities to agree on a debt-for-equity swap that will see its holding in RHA rise to 90 percent from 49 percent and this has yet to happen, though Premier said talks with the Ministry of Industry over recommissioning RHA had now started.
Premier is an emerging tungsten producer from the RHA Tungsten Mine and is advancing the sizeable Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project in Zimbabwe. In addition, the Company has a controlling interest in TCT IF, an operating forestry business with a significant limestone deposit in Mozambique.
Premier also has a number of significant investments in the mineral sector in Africa. Its shareholding in Circum Minerals Limited is valued at US$10.2 million. And it has a 4.5 percent interest in Casa Mining Limited, a privately-owned gold explorer, developing the 1.2 million-ounce Akyanga deposit in the DRC.
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